Wednesday, March 7, 2018

News: Rotherham Council's litter crackdown continues

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Offenders leaving litter in Rotherham are set to be hit with fines of £150 from April with private sector contractors set to continue enforcement through a new shared services model with neighbouring Doncaster Council.

Rotherham Council's "Time for Action" initiative involves enhanced environmental enforcement to target issues such as littering, dog fouling and fly-tipping. The authority has an environmental crime bill of around £1.7m a year.

As part of a trial, Kingdom Security were contracted in April 2017 to patrol known key hotspots and issue fixed penalty notices to anyone caught committing an environmental crime such as dropping litter.

Alongside the Public Space Protection Order (PSPO), the action is targeting Rotherham town centre to help improve the environment and change perceptions.

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In total 6,467 fines were issued by Kingdom between April 2017 and January 2018. Kingdom received £42.50 for each correctly issued fixed penalty notice paid for from the fines issued and paid.

Fixed penalty notices for litter were set at £80 but are set to be increased to £150.

A report to the Council states: "There is a risk that with higher fines comes a reduced payment rate. However the Government are currently planning to increase the fixed penalty for littering to £150 due to the importance of the issue and broadening powers for Councils to tackle littering from vehicles by making the vehicle keeper responsible for the offence where the individual who dropped the litter cannot be identified. The maximum £150 has been suggested, with a reduction of £100 for early payment."

In 2017 the Fixed Penalty amounts for fly tipping were £400 and business waste offences were £300. 21 penalty notices were issued over a 12 month period but only 38% were paid.

Looking ahead, a shared service agreement is being developed so that Doncaster Council can deliver on Rotherham's behalf, enhanced environmental crime and parking enforcement within Rotherham.

Kingdom has been working in Doncaster for a number of years where increased enforcement has added income to support investigation and also reduced the number of complaints about litter by 20%.

The agreement is not a merging of the two authorities, but is an additional contract to cover Rotherham with an external contractor, which would be tendered for.

Doncaster Council is set to go out for procurement for a private contractor to deliver on street enforcement in Rotherham as part of the shared service. It would last for three years with the option of two one-year extensions and cover on street enforcement in both Doncaster and Rotherham or either locality on its own.

Kingdom website

Images: RMBC

7 comments:

havebookwillread March 7, 2018 at 1:20 PM  

Good. I moved here 2 years ago and was frankly shocked at just how much litter there was and how blatent some people were about just throwing things on the floor.

Ange March 8, 2018 at 10:57 AM  

I visited Rotherham in August 2017 for 4wks after moving away 19yrs ago, & I was actually quite shocked at how clean it actually was, I was more disappointed at the over grown roundabouts & road sides

Anonymous,  March 9, 2018 at 8:31 AM  

Rotherham council is a joke.Try doing something with the eye sore on corporation street.

Anonymous,  March 19, 2018 at 1:11 PM  
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Tom,  March 19, 2018 at 1:11 PM  

The fees & charges were agreed by the council's cabinet but proposed litter fines were amended.

Fines for dropping litter are set to stay at £80 with £150 for late payment.

Anonymous,  July 13, 2021 at 9:23 PM  

Disgraceful sneaking about and following smokers, are we not vilified enough. Where does this money go that they get from fines I have never seen a road sweeper on my estate for years. RMBC disgracefully.

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